New Drivers Now Available

cob666 said:
My Axe II came pre-installed with 10.09 last week. Is the version of 10.09 that was just made available the SAME build number? Do I have to install the 10.09 firmware that was just released or should I be OK with the version that was pre-installed?
Click to expand...
You take no risk upgrading again.
 
joegold said:
Thanks!
I'll load that back in and then see if I can get USB audio again on 10.6.8 and will report back here with the results.
Click to expand...

OK, I've tried the older USB driver that is available at the axefx.fr site.

With the Axe running 10.09 I can see the Axe i/o selections in both Audio/MIDI setup and in Logic's audio prefs again.
But, when I have the Axe's USB Out pref in the Axe's I/O menus set to Output 1, I only get signal when Inputs 3&4 are selected in Logic's channel strip (the dry unprocessed AxeII Output feed) .
If I switch the Axe's USB Out pref to Output 2 or Input I do get the signal from its Out 2 and/or its dry unprocessed signal when I have Inputs 1&2 selected on Logic's channel strip.

So it kind of works now, but I can't get the Axe's Out 1 feed into Logic, only the Out 2 feed or the unprocessed feed.
Hope that makes sense. It's hard to describe.
If I wasn't already using the Axe's Out 2 for something else I suppose I could even work this way.
If I've mis-set something else on the Axe or the 'puter it's not obvious to me.

Thinking that the new USB features in 10.09 might have borked something as far as compatibility with the old USB drivers is concerned, I went and re-installed 10.06, but it behaves exactly the same as discussed above with 10.09.
And that's not the way it worked before I first installed 10.09 and the new USB drivers.

So, I think that there might have been another interim USB driver issued by Fractal that doesn't appear to be on that axefx.fr archive site.
I noticed when installing the USB driver that is on that site, that it mentioned OS 10.5.7 as being its minimum requirement.
But the USB driver that's been on Fractal's site for the last several months stated that OS 10.7.4 was the minimum requirement as I recall.

So, does anybody still have the immediately-previous-to-the-current-Mac-USB installer that I could have?

I'm kind of hoping that the new USB buffer size selections in v10.09 will also smooth out any of the minor problems I was having with the most recently previous USB drivers, but it seems more like the new firmware and the old drivers are not really compatible.
I can't run the new USB audio drivers on my system until I upgrade to Mountain Lion which will mean that I'll also have to buy a new audio interface.
Oiy.

Guess I'll probably just have to pass on USB audio for a while more and keep using S/PDIF or the XLRs.
Minor problems, but still frustrating.
 
joegold said:
OK, I've tried the older USB driver that is available at the axefx.fr site.

With the Axe running 10.09 I can see the Axe i/o selections in both Audio/MIDI setup and in Logic's audio prefs again.
But, when I have the Axe's USB Out pref in the Axe's I/O menus set to Output 1, I only get signal when Inputs 3&4 are selected in Logic's channel strip (the dry unprocessed AxeII Output feed) .
If I switch the Axe's USB Out pref to Output 2 or Input I do get the signal from its Out 2 and/or its dry unprocessed signal when I have Inputs 1&2 selected on Logic's channel strip.

So it kind of works now, but I can't get the Axe's Out 1 feed into Logic, only the Out 2 feed or the unprocessed feed.
Hope that makes sense. It's hard to describe.
If I wasn't already using the Axe's Out 2 for something else I suppose I could even work this way.
If I've mis-set something else on the Axe or the 'puter it's not obvious to me.

Thinking that the new USB features in 10.09 might have borked something as far as compatibility with the old USB drivers is concerned, I went and re-installed 10.06, but it behaves exactly the same as discussed above with 10.09.
And that's not the way it worked before I first installed 10.09 and the new USB drivers.

So, I think that there might have been another interim USB driver issued by Fractal that doesn't appear to be on that axefx.fr archive site.
I noticed when installing the USB driver that is on that site, that it mentioned OS 10.5.7 as being its minimum requirement.
But the USB driver that's been on Fractal's site for the last several months stated that OS 10.7.4 was the minimum requirement as I recall.

So, does anybody still have the immediately-previous-to-the-current-Mac-USB installer that I could have?

I'm kind of hoping that the new USB buffer size selections in v10.09 will also smooth out any of the minor problems I was having with the most recently previous USB drivers, but it seems more like the new firmware and the old drivers are not really compatible.
I can't run the new USB audio drivers on my system until I upgrade to Mountain Lion which will mean that I'll also have to buy a new audio interface.
Oiy.

Guess I'll probably just have to pass on USB audio for a while more and keep using S/PDIF or the XLRs.
Minor problems, but still frustrating.
Click to expand...

Fractal really just needs to make all of their stuff work with 10.6.8 and up for Mac. There are lots of people using tons of other software that is working fine on 10.6.8 and they do not want to update their OSX and potentially cause problems with everything else they use.
 
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MacBook owner reporting in:
MacBook 3,1 6GB Memory (Black, Naturally)
OSX 10.7.5
FAS USB Driver 167
USB Buffer Size 64
AxeFXII FW 10.09

Results: Works Great. Pulled audio out of AFX into GarageBand via USB, added delay effect, then send audio out USB back to AFX. No degradation in audio signal coming in or going out. AFX Utility,Status show USB to be at ~40% constantly, whether playing or not. I have been playing for over four hours without any issues.

I tried updating the USB Buffer Size to 512, 256, 2048 but could not tell any difference. No delay, no distortion, bitcrush, etc. Decided to leave it at preset of 64.
 
Last edited:
Reposted from another thread I started last night at 4 AM but I guess I should have posted here. I just didn't want feedback but to get mixed in with all of the thanks and hell-yeahs so it would be more concentrated. Anyway...

Thanks Fractal for putting in the effort to publish this.

So much for sleep. Shall I bill you for marriage counseling or flowers? Just kidding of course.

I've been testing the new FW & drivers. This is just a first impression (well after about two hours of testing that is). Things definitely seem better but I haven't achieved nirvana, yet anyway. I'll talk about my results more later but first I have a couple of questions:

1) Is changing the USB buffer setting in your DAW the same as changing it within the Axe-FX? I have Digital Performer so I have the ability to change the buffer settings within the DAW and it will relaunch the audio system (I think that negates the need to relaunch the application or pull out the USB cable but I'm not positive). - To which Javajunkie replied "No. They are different buffers."

2) Does non-linerarity prevent sample accuracy on subsequent passes? i.e. if I record a DI then select a patch then reamp it once, then a second time and pan the passes center and invert the phase on 1 track there isn't silence which I would expect from a digital device so the two signals are not sample accurate.

Results so far: I'm able to use the Axe-FX by itself to record and monitor audio (a capability I had before) with different buffer settings. 64 samples was totally unusable, 256 minimum is required. I'm able to reamp with the Axe-FX. The passes aren't sample accurate (see question 2 above), but they don't sound tubby or washed out so I guess they are pretty well in phase and double tracking can be accomplished. I'm able to activate both the Axe-FX via USB and my MOTU 828mk3 via FW within Digital Performer and monitor the mix from the 828mk3 and audition patches on the Axe-FX in context without clicks and pops and without crashing the audio system. I'm able to reamp and multiple passes seem pretty well in phase.

I guess writing it out the results are pretty good but I was bummed when subsequent passes weren't sample accurate. I expected to invert the phase and hear sweet silence but I guess it may be theoretically true that one wouldn't if reamplng multiple passes through an amp or analog synth. Can anyone confirm? Are these double tracked tracks as in phase and powerful as possible? It this the same performance I would have achieved if I kept my Radial J-48 and X-Amp reamp kit? Well obviously I'm soliciting opinions here since no one can really say without testing it and I don't have those boxes anymore. Is anyone comparing Axe-FX reamp results to analog reamp results?
 
So those of us running OS X 10.6.8 and FW 10.06 with no problems, should we upgrade or not? I don't want to break my USB input.
 
I would ensure you have a backup of the USB Driver and Firmware, then upgrade to the latest from FAS. They spent a lot of time and money to provide this update. It usually best to run the latest that they recommend.
 
Voldemort said:
So those of us running OS X 10.6.8 and FW 10.06 with no problems, should we upgrade or not? I don't want to break my USB input.
Click to expand...

I'm running OS X 10.8.4 and my new Axe II came pre-installed with fw 10.09. I installed the USB drivers from the Fractal site and after some fiddling I'm able to use my Axe II as an audio interface. I've dome some minimal recording only to verify that I had everything configured properly but I was able to record.
 
joegold said:
So, since I do not plan on upgrading to Mountain Lion anytime soon, I'd rather be using the previous version of the Mac OS USB drivers (assuming that they will still work as they did with AxeII v10.09)
Click to expand...

FWIW, I went ahead with the ML download from the Apple Store and after the install, I gotsta say, my MBP is working much smoother. I've heard complaints of slowness and the like, honestly this machine only runs my DAW goodies. But it's been a great upgrade, no growing pains, no issues. I think I paid $18 for the upgrade from SL. Might be worth looking into.

Just sayin'
Mo
 
HughJasol said:
Axe-Fx II Firmware Release Notes
*******************************************************************************
10.09

Reset USB input buffer upon detection of lack of input stream to mitigate poor OS-X clock adaptation (as buffer can be skewed significantly off-center at certain times due to clock drift).

Added USB buffer size select in I/O->Audio menu. Set this to lower values for less latency, set to higher values if experiencing distorted audio. Low values generally work fine with Windows machines. OS-X computers usually need higher values due to poor clock adaptation. You should stop USB audio streaming when changing this value so as to allow the buffer to reset properly. Streaming can be stopped by closing the application sending data to the Axe-Fx or by disconnecting the USB cable.

USB buffer level monitoring added to Utility->Status menu. The “USB” bar graph displays the amount of data in the USB FIFO buffer. Ideally the bar should be at around 50%. If the bar sinks all the way to the bottom or goes all the way to the top then the buffer may under/overflow and the USB buffer size should be increased. The number of buffer errors that have occurred since the last buffer reset is indicated above the bar graph.

NOTE: The new OS-X driver must be downloaded from our website and installed to ensure proper USB audio operation on Apple computers.

Fixed exported Tone Match data derived prior to any processing, i.e. before Smoothing and Amount.

Fixed exported Tone Match data not being imported into Cab block if no name entered.

Added Configuration data query function to support Axe-Edit and FractalBot. This allows remote devices to query Display Offset and other pertinent data.

Added “Trip-Tik” amp model based on a Carol-Ann TripTik.

*******************************************************************************
10.08

Fixed USB audio in Windows not working in 10.07.

*******************************************************************************
10.07

Internal release.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
 
WOW after all of the time and protests of Mac users I thought people would be jumping all over this thread. Where is the feedback? I'm really eager to hear what people have to say about this, especially with regards to reaping...
 
Opps, meant reamping (stupid autocorrect, I've told it to recognize reamping but it refuses for some reason).
 
ok haven't had time to read through all the posts, so can someone give me a quick and simple answer please?

i'm running a macbook with 10.6.8 and i'm about to upgrade to FW10.9 on the axe. i don't use the usb for recording, but i do notice that the new driver is compatible with 10.5.x for midi. should i install the new usb driver or not?

supplementary question - is it worth upgrading to mountain lion? i'm absolutely paranoid abut upgrading and having problems with Logic Studio and/or my plugins...

many thanks!

sim
 
simeon said:
ok haven't had time to read through all the posts, so can someone give me a quick and simple answer please?

i'm running a macbook with 10.6.8 and i'm about to upgrade to FW10.9 on the axe. i don't use the usb for recording, but i do notice that the new driver is compatible with 10.5.x for midi. should i install the new usb driver or not?

supplementary question - is it worth upgrading to mountain lion? i'm absolutely paranoid abut upgrading and having problems with Logic Studio and/or my plugins...

many thanks!

sim
Click to expand...

Ditto.

Plus Simeon, if you upgrade your Mac, watch out for losing Rosetta. I can't remember whether it's Mountain Lion that stopped covering it (meaning you lose MS Office and other PC-based sofware).
 
Voldemort said:
So those of us running OS X 10.6.8 and FW 10.06 with no problems, should we upgrade or not? I don't want to break my USB input.
Click to expand...

Unless I did something wrong and my experience is not typical, then if you're running Snow Leopard and you update the Axe to 10.09 *or* you update the USB drivers with the new software you will be making it impossible to record audio via USB from the Axe's Out 1 feed but may still be able to record using the Axe's Out 2 feed.
Reamping may still be possible as well because the dry unprocessed feed is still operative.
I never got a chance to see how well the Out2 feed works on my system though.
I only had time to assess that it appeared to be available in Logic and that I could hear some audio.

The USB MIDI capabilities appear to be fine with the new Fractal software (both the firmware and the USB drivers) and Snow Leopard FWIW.

Again, does anybody have a link to the immediately previous version of the Axe USB installer (not the one at the axefx.fr site)?
 
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